"When Dreams Go Walking" by Meredith Davies Hadaway

When Dreams Go Walking

they wear no clothes in public places,
fall from heights and lose their teeth.

Dreams call for help into mute
telephones, sit down to take exams

in classes they forgot they had signed
up for. They find back stairs, secret rooms,

and hidden gardens at a house they
used to live in. They go dancing

with ex-boyfriends — recall it all, forgive
everything, and let them go.

They can fly, they can fly! And then
they come across your parents, young,

and talking once again. They’re leaning
toward each other, head to head

in a network of neurons, as alive
as ever, as real as anything in love.

Meredith Davies hadaway

Meredith Davies Hadaway has three published collections of poetry from WordTech — including At the Narrows, winner of the 2015 Delmarva Book Prize for Creative Writing. Her work has also appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Cincinnati Review, Harpur Palate, New Ohio Review, Rhino, Salamander, Southern Poetry Review, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, among other journals. Hadaway is the Sophie Kerr Poet-in-Residence at Washington College.

Headshot: Tamzin Smith

Photo Credit: Staff